Seminar in Ethiopia 2016

Seminar in Africa / Ethiopia / Addis Adeba during  15 January 2016 to 17 January2016

My friend picked me up from the airport Fesiha Koku and brought me into the hotel "Beshale Hotel". The entire city had no energy that evening, so I had to feel my way to my hotel room and finally to my bed. The next morning we went straight into the first training. On Friday I had two workouts with about 25-30 black belts and on Saturday there were already at least 35 Black Belts. They were highly motivated and followed my ideas. It was welcomed to the seminar by the President of ISKF Ethiopia Mr. Girma Zewdu. We 've known each other at least for 5 years already and we always maintain a good friendship. I made a lot of more new friends and I'm sure it has not been my last training in Addis Ababa.

But back to my workouts. In the first unit I showed  the exercise of basic techniques  followed by combinations of different step-sequences. After that we did partner exercises. In the second session I combined the lesson with a lot of Ju-Jitsu techniques and strikes to vital points. The students were very excited and didn’t let me leave the hall. On Saturday I started with partner exercises and the kata Meikyo. Then we closed the exercise with the old form "Rohai" and then we repeated the techniques of the previous day.  And this was the finish line of my seminar in Addis Abeba.

I experienced many great things besides this wonderful group of karateka! On Friday night we went to the historic cultural center, where various dances were performed and met artists from other countries. Highlight of the day was a meeting with the marathon Olympic champion from Ethiopia Mr. Mo Farah. We took a few pictures and had a pleasant talk.

On Saturday I visited another district of Addis Ababa where I met Pastor Teferi Berkessa from EECMY - Bethel Synod. He baptized my daughter Sophia in Berlin 10 years ago. We had a pleasant talk about old times. Because in Ethiopia there is much poverty and many children has to starve, they  handle food and water very different than we do in Germany. At the end of our conversation we handed out our collected charity money for the the AIDS orphans project from Khanka district where even our old priest Siegfried Mentzel is very heavily involved. The association "Peoples' Friendship e.V " from Germany give also 500€ for charity. Furthermore, I gave Pastor Teferi some money for his church .

It was a very exciting time and I was brought to the ground of reality itself. It reminded me about how good our children in Germany have it and I made a lot of pictures to remind it our kids at home also.

I asked myself the question : "When does a man lose his dignity because of poverty?" here I saw many beggars, but there were not more than in my city . But the poverty was not comparable . In Germany, even if life is not easy, you don’t  have to beg. But the people here in Ethiopia still keep their smile.

On Sunday Fiseha and I went to Nazareth to a beautiful lake. In the evening, we went with friends to a restaurant called “Culturally Checheho Restaurant ". In the evening I was brought to the airport where I had to say goodbye to my friends.

I will keep very good memories of Addis Ababa.

 

Michael Bock